Benzema starts Ittihad career with a bang

Karim Benzema opened his Saudi Arabian account in style on Thursday, scoring a decisive and delightful goal for Al-Ittihad in a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Esperance de Tunis in their opening game in the King Salman Club Cup. The victory sends the Jeddah giants top of Group A in this 16-team tournament, formerly known as the Arab Club Champions Cup.

The French striker, who arrived in Jeddah in the summer, was in the thick of action for most of the match in Abha and also set up the first half strike for Abderrazak Hamdallah.

Benzema found himself surrounded by plenty of defenders every time he received the ball and must have looked on in admiration as the North Africans took the lead in the 26th minute with a spectacular strike

 A cross from the right found its way to Oussama Bouguerra just inside the area and he spun to produce an unstoppable arrow-like half-volley that flew into the top left corner of Marcelo Grohe’s goal. It seemed as if Esperance, who have the best record in this tournament with three wins and two runners-up spots, were keeping up their fine tradition. 

Yet it didn’t take the Saudi Arabian champions long to strike back and Benzema was heavily involved. The current FIFA Ballon D’or holder collected the ball on the left side of the area and then turned his defenders to curl a shot home into the opposite top corner. Nobody will ever know if it would have ended with a goal as Hamdallah, the Moroccan was the leading goalscorer in the league last season, showed his instincts to intervene at the near post to head home.

Those fans wearing the famous yellow and black were on their feet ten minutes into the second half as Benzema showed just why he is one of the most feared and decorated strikers on the